A Surrogate Family
by Lonessa 8D
Summary: Mercury spends his first Thanksgiving with Ruby and the gang. Just a fluffy one-shot connected to my main fic 'Wilted'. (An OC has a minor role in this fic).


_This is a fanfiction that I wrote for a little challenge on RWBY amino. I hope you enjoy, and I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving (if you celebrate it)!_

 _Note: This fanfiction is based off of 'Wilted' but is not canon to 'Wilted's' storyline. Also, an OC is implemented due to the challenge's requirements. If you have an amino account you can check out my OC in detail under my favorites._

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" _Mercuryyy_!"

The high pitched yell was quickly followed by a familiar girl tackling Mercury in a hug, smiling brightly as the silver haired teen arched a brow and quirked a half smile. "Hello there."

"Guess what day it is tomorrow?" Ruby questioned happily, releasing him and bouncing on her toes.

Mercury smirked as he crossed his arms. "Tomorrow's Thursday."

Her smile quickly turned to an annoyed frown. "No! Guess again."

He made an overly thoughtful face before guessing, "Goodwitch is giving us a test tomorrow?"

Ruby merely glared.

"Oh, right!" Mercury exclaimed jokingly. "The cafeteria is baking those chocolate fudge cookies you love."

"No! Well, yes, but that's not what I'm talking about." Ruby quickly spread out her arms and smiled widely. "Tomorrow's Thanksgiving!"

"…Thanksgiving?"

"Yeah!" Ruby replied with a nod. "You know, the holiday where a big feast is prepared and we sit down to give thanks for what we have. I heard that the tradition started after the Great War."

Mercury made a small noise that Ruby couldn't distinguish as interest or disinterest, which wasn't a good sign. Ruby knew Mercury well enough by now that if something didn't strike Mercury as interesting or at the least bit amusing, he probably wouldn't go. Here's hoping she could convince him to tag along.

"So, my team as well as JNPR are all going to Patch to spend Thanksgiving together. Oh, and that new girl Cherry… uh, but anyway, I was wondering if you wanted to come along… and maybe your teammates too!"

Mercury looked like he was considering it, but instead of agreeing he said cautiously, "Is your Uncle Qrow going to be there?"

"Well, yeah, duh!" Ruby exclaimed, thinking it was a no brainer.

"And you do realize that Qrow said that he would gut me if I looked at you the wrong way, or even accidentally touched you while he's around, right?"

"Oh, come on, he won't actually do that!" Ruby started off confidently before casting her eyes to the side. "Er… actually he might try… B-But I'll stop him, I promise!"

Mercury looked doubtful that she could actually stop the scythe wielding drunkard, and Ruby impulsively latched onto his arm and gave him puppy dog eyes.

"Ruby, don't look at me with those eyes."

"Pleeeeease?"

"Stop it. I refuse to look at you." Mercury turned his head in the other direction to emphasize his point.

"You would be the best boyfriend ever if you came to Thanksgiving dinner with me~" Ruby smiled sweetly as she poked his cheek.

"…Fine."

"Yay!" Ruby perked up immediately and released his arm from her death grip. "Okay, so Yang and Weiss have already left to decorate the place a bit but everyone else is leaving on a Bullhead tomorrow at ten o'clock. Text me if you can convince Emerald, Nyx, and Cinder to come, see ya!"

At that, Ruby darted up to kiss his cheek before running to her dorm, absolutely giddy at the thought of tomorrow.

~~•••~~

…In the Villain's Dorm…

~~•••~~

The first thing Mercury was greeted with as he walked into the door of his "team's" dorm was a bright scroll in his face.

 _{What took you so long?! Where's my ice cream!}_

"Nice to see you too, Neo." Mercury pushed the scroll out of his face before looking down at the multicolored girl. "Now this is where you say 'thank you Mercury, for being such a good friend and buying me ice cream'."

 _{Hmm… nope!}_ Neo typed before darting around him and snatching the neapolitan ice cream pint from his hand, already popping the lid open and flopping on her bed as she spooned the cold treat out of the carton.

"What took you so long? It takes maybe twenty minutes to walk to the closest vendor because of the festival," Emerald questioned as she played on her scroll, looking beyond bored.

"Ran into Ruby." Mercury shrugged before lounging on his own bed. He barely had time to exhale before Neo bounced over and shoved her scroll in his face again. "Neo, I know you want to say something, but I can't read it if the scroll is resting on my nose."

Neo pouted before somehow adding attitude to the action of spooning a mixture of vanilla and strawberry ice cream into her mouth. Mercury was so adjusted to her general insanity that he didn't even question it, and instead looked at Neo's scroll.

 _{What did you two 'talk' about? ;)}_

Mercury sighed again.

"Please don't turn melodramatic on us. I can barely stand you as you are currently," Emerald said flatly, turning back to her scroll.

"Yeah yeah, love you too, Mint Chocolate Chip."

"Watch it, Spoon."

Neo had had enough of their hateful banter, and smacked Mercury's stomach so hard he wheezed. Ignoring his glare, she pointed to her scroll in a silent demand.

"Alright alright. Ruby wanted to know if you two wanted to go celebrate Thanksgiving at her house with her team, JNPR, and some girl named Cherry."

"No."

"Aw, why not Emmy?" Mercury teased. "They're your friends too."

"No no, Ruby's your girlfriend. And for some reason, some of them are your friends. They're not my friends." Emerald waggled her finger for emphasis.

Neo obviously didn't like Emerald's answer, since a plastic spoon went flying toward's Emerald's face. The green haired girl ducked just in time, and by the time Mercury and Emerald looked at the ice cream girl, she had already produced another spoon out of thin air.

Again, Mercury isn't questioning anything about Neo at this point.

 _{Well, I was planning on trying to visit Roman tomorrow}_ Neo typed quickly before adding, _{But Emerald will go, and if she doesn't I'll beat her to death with my parasol.}_

"You do realize that Torchwick is in jail right? And I'm pretty sure Cinder wouldn't want you to kill an associate."

"Umm…" Emerald looked concerned. "Did I miss something?"

 _{I have my ways. Besides, you and Emerald pull the best pranks on the holidays. Remember last Christmas?}_ Neo laughed silently as she typed. _{'It's a Christmas Tau-ree!'}_

"I try to suppress it actually," Mercury admitted with false cheer, remembering back to the dark times. Emerald and Mercury had surprised Adam and wrapped blinking red and green Christmas lights around him and placed a star on top of one of his horns. The pun was just too tempting to ignore.

Yeah, they were lucky Adam didn't chop their heads off, or worse, were roasted by Cinder's Maiden powers.

"If she's saying that I'll go I'm vetoing that right now," Emerald warned.

With an angry scowl, Neo stomped over to Emerald and typed rapidly, becoming more animated the longer they 'talked'. In reality, Emerald was using her semblance so Mercury couldn't hear while Neo literally *couldn't* talk, so it just looked like an angry stare off.

After about a minute of silence, Emerald cast aside her semblance and yelled, "I'm not going, end of story!"

Mercury smirked.

~~•••~~

…Beacon's Landing Pad…

[~~•••~~

"I can't believe I'm doing this," Emerald muttered as she crossed her arms tightly across her chest.

"Hey, all you had to do was stay silent. It's your fault Cinder heard you and thought it was a good idea to build trust." Mercury grinned at Emerald's pained expression before looking back out towards the school. "Oh come on Em, you can survive one day."

"Says you!" Emerald groaned. "I swear if I get stuck with some peppy little kid—"

"Hello!"

"AGH!" Emerald nearly toppled over at the sudden burst of sound to her left, and bumped into Mercury as they both glanced at the intruder.

"Oh, I'm sorry! Did I scare you?" The short girl asked in concern, pale red eyes wide. Layers upon layers of deep red hair cascaded down her back and framed the sides of her face, and an extremely large ribbon fashioned into a bow kept her hair in a ponytail.

"Uh… hi?" Mercury greeted in confusion.

"Oh, how rude of me! I didn't introduce myself." Cherry smiled widely before extending a hand half covered by her black sleeve. "I'm Cherry Jade! Ruby's friend."

Mercury took her hand cautiously. "Mercury. This is Emerald."

"Ah, Ruby mentioned you! Well, she'll be out soon! Team JNPR already took a Bullhead to Patch, so it'll just be us, Ruby and Blake," Cherry informed them happily. "And there's no need to worry about Zwei! Yang took him with her when she left yesterday."

"Wait, who's Zwei?" Emerald asked before turning to Mercury, who was trying to look as nonchalant as possible. "Mercury…"

"I think you'll like him." Mercury could barely hold back his evil smirk. "He's cool."

As Emerald closed her eyes and pinched her nose, Mercury winked at Cherry, who made a face of realization before cupping her mouth as a giggle tried to escape.

"So you're Ruby's friend?" Mercury prompted.

"Oh yeah, we met a couple days ago," Cherry said happily, a beaming smile on her face. "We got to talking and she introduced me to her team, and when she found out I didn't really have anywhere to go for Thanksgiving, she invited me to her place. She's really sweet, don't you think?"

"Yeah, she's something." Mercury looked off to the side, grinning when he saw a bob of red and black hair approaching. "But sweet? Nah. Ruby may be sweet, but she's a sneaky one."

"Hey!" Ruby quickly sped in between Mercury and Cherry, a scowl on her face. All intimidation was lost however as she held a tub of chocolate fudge cookies that he had no doubt she stole from the cafeteria. "Don't listen to him, Cherry. Mercury's just a meanie."

"Aw, I'm hurt Gem." Mercury placed a hand on his chest. "And here I thought I was the best boyfriend ever."

"Meh." Ruby waved the thought away. "Nyx and Cinder couldn't make it?"

"Nah, Cinder has family in Vale and Nyx wanted to see if she could visit a friend," Emerald said with a false smile. "They send their best."

"Aw, well they'll be missed. But I have cookies! Blake, come on!" Ruby called to the cat faunus balancing two large tubs of sweets in her arms.

"Tell me Ruby, does the cafeteria have any cookies left?" Mercury asked with a smirk that gradually widened as Ruby stayed silent.

"W-Well, they have like… a couple left…" Ruby mumbled before jumping in the air. "B-But that's not important! We have cookies and a Bullhead to catch!"

Ruby sped off again at that, and Mercury sighed with a sideways smile. "Well, you heard her. Go on ahead you two, I'll help Blake with the rest of the cookies."

~~•••~~

…Arriving at the Rose-Xiao Long-Branwen Residence…

~~•••~~

"Ahh! There it is!"

Ruby pointed to the cottage at the end of the cobblestone path, a large grin on her face. Mercury had to admit that the house looked rather homey, with smoke billowing out of the chimney and warm light radiating from the windows. Trees surrounded the cottage and a rocky mountain was off to the left a ways, giving the house a form of solitude.

"Nice place," Mercury admitted while slinging an arm around the silver eyed girl's shoulder. "You've always lived here?"

"Yup, all of my fifteen years!" Ruby exclaimed. "Dad always says that we should move to a more populated area, but there's so many good memories in this house, it's hard to leave it."

Mercury's mind suddenly went blank. Right. Her dad. Well, if facing Qrow was bad, he's pretty sure Daddy Xiao Long will have his head on a stake in seconds. Great.

 _:What's the matter, Merc? You're looking a little green:_ Emerald taunted him through her semblance, and he shot a glare at her while she stuck her tongue out at him.

"Oh, is he going to be here?" Cherry asked with an excited smile, swinging her arms as her hair bounced around wildly.

"He should be! He'll be a bit late though. Yang texted me earlier saying that his mission took a little longer than normal and he just told her he was on his way about an hour ago."

"Well I can't wait to meet him! Your Uncle Qrow is awesome, so I can only assume your dad is the same!" Cherry clasped her hands in excitement.

"Qrow definitely is an interesting character," Blake agreed.

"Thanks guys!"

Oh Oum, he's so dead.

"Uh, hey Ruby, you mind if I talk to you for a sec?" Mercury asked abruptly, causing looks of concern to be sent his way from Ruby, Blake and Cherry while a smug smile was directed at him from Emerald.

"Sure. Emerald, Cherry, Blake, why don't you all go ahead?" Ruby urged them, and after they agreed and made it far enough away for them not to be heard, Ruby turned to Mercury. "What's up? You've been pretty quiet."

"Does your dad know that I'm coming?"

"Oh yeah! I sent him a list of everyone I was going to ask and he said it was okay," Ruby said immediately, a slight smile on her face. "Don't worry, you're welcome here Mercury."

"But does he know…" Mercury gestured between them both. "About us?"

"Oh… uhm…" Ruby bit her lip before rubbing the back of her head awkwardly. "I… didn't tell him."

Mercury exhaled through his nose, but before he could respond Ruby flailed her arms and began speaking fast, "B-But we can tell him together and I can have Yang and Uncle Qrow vouch for you and stuff, he won't do anything I promise! I'm sure he'll like you!"

"Either way, your his little girl. And I kiss you on a daily basis."

Ruby blushed a deep crimson. "I-I mean I kiss you back!"

"Doesn't matter, Gem." Mercury sighed before wrapping his arms around her. "Well, it's been fun. I can feel my impending murder. Say something nice about me at my funeral, okay sweetheart?"

"Mercury!" Ruby laughed before swatting his arm. "I won't let anything happen to you, okay? Now come on, everyone is waiting inside!"

She took his hand and began dragging him along to the cottage bustling with activity. He could see people running around in a frenzy through the windows. It was almost funny, like one of those old films where you could only see the shadows of the family as they run around trying to get ready for some event they're late for. Only in this, it was Ruby's friends running around trying to prepare a meal.

"Oh, by the way, I'm probably going to be stuck in the kitchen for the majority of the time," Ruby informed him as they reached the front door. "It's tradition that Yang and I cook the turkey together."

"I'll do my best to survive without you, Ruby," Mercury snarked with a gentle smile to take away the bite of his comment. Ruby rolled her eyes.

"Yeah yeah, you big meanie." Ruby tugged on his hand until he leant down far enough for her to press a gentle kiss to his lips. "Come on, everyone's waiting."

Ruby let go of his hand to open up the door, bathing them in warm golden light from the living room. Shrieks of laughter could be heard from all around the house, and as Mercury stepped inside, he was immediately met with the amusing sight of Zwei jumping on top of Emerald and knocking her to the ground as Cherry took pictures.

"AGH! What the—"

"Emerald, *that's* Zwei!" Mercury announced with a victorious smirk, relishing in the seconds that she glared at him with fury in her eyes before a few wet licks from the corgi caused her to scrunch her face up and splutter.

"Oh, thanks for warning me!" Emerald quipped sarcastically as she tried to fend off Zwei's affection. "Uh, Cherry? Blake? Help?!"

"Nah, this is too funny!" Cherry giggled.

"I'm good." Mercury heard Blake's voice, and he furrowed his brows before looking up and letting out a startled chuckle as the cat faunus was dangling from the ceiling fan.

"Okay okay! Zwei, c'mere boy!" Ruby opened her arms for the corgi to jump into, and she nuzzled the grey and white dog to her face as she headed toward an open alcove in the wall. "Alright, Cherry come help me in the kitchen, Mercury, Emerald, you can explore the house and mingle! Oh, just don't burn it down please. And Blake, you can come down from your perch now!"

"Not until I know Zwei won't attack me!" Blake yelled.

"Zwei won't attack you, he'll love you!"

"That's just as bad!"

"Well," Mercury announced as Emerald got to her feet and frowned at him. "This should be interesting."

"I hate you," Emerald mumbled back.

~~•••~~

...The Kitchen…

~~•••~~

"And she has arrived!" Yang bellowed before stomping forward and engulfing Ruby in her signature bear hug. "What took you so long, Little Sis?"

"Mercury's a slow poke," Ruby joked before pulling away from her sister. She quickly adopted a horrified look at what Yang was wearing. "Y-Yang! What's this?!"

Yang looked down at her outfit. She still had on her form fitting short shorts but instead of her signature top, she merely threw on a yellow sports bra and threw her hair up in a messy ponytail. "Oh, calm down Sis, it's not like people see anything."

"You're busting out of it!"

"Sis." Yang leaned down to Ruby's eye level. "I bust out of _everything_."

Ruby went to argue more, but Weiss quickly placed herself in between the two. "Look, this is no time to start arguing about clothes. What's more important is that we get this meal cooked before people start complaining."

Yang placed a hand on her hip and quirked a brow. "I'm sorry, 'we'? I distinctly remember that for the past couple hours you've just been bossing us around while thinking we're actually listening to you."

Weiss gasped before growling angrily, "Well at least I'm trying!"

"Leave it to your cake butler," Ruby shot with a smirk before walking around the two girls to the oven, seeing Cherry cutting some vegetables beside it. "Everything going okay, Cherry?"

"Oh yeah, this is a beautiful home you have Ruby!" Cherry complimented with a smile. "And no worries, if you need a wing-girl in the kitchen, I'm the right choice! I cook for my team all the time."

"You are my savior," Ruby stated with the utmost seriousness before bursting in laughter along with Cherry. "And thanks! My mom picked out most of the decor but over time we've slowly modernized things."

"Well it's paid off."

Ruby smiled to herself as she moved to the sink, seeing pans with a tan batter stuck to the sides. They cluttered up a large amount of the sink, and Ruby sighed before looking to Yang. "Let me guess; Nora wanted pancakes?"

"Oh yeah, and Ren decided to just make a couple, but Nora got impatient and started eating the batter out of the pans as they were cooking. She's in the bathroom right now either throwing up or letting Ren treat the burns all over her hands."

"Yikes."

Yang shrugged. "That's Nora for you."

"Very true," Ruby admitted with a giggle. "I'll clean these while you and Cherry do your thing."

"You got it Sis!" Yang saluted. "Oh, by the way, Uncle Qrow should be back soon with the rest of the groceries."

Ruby nearly dropped the pan in her grasp. She forgot about Uncle Qrow!

"O-Oh Oum, can someone warn Mercury?" Ruby asked frantically, seeing an evil smile spread across Yang's face. Ruby quickly turned to Weiss. "Weiss can you—"

"No." Weiss didn't even look up from inspecting her nails.

"W-Why?!"

"Mercury's a big boy, he can take care of himself," Yang assured her, though Ruby knew Yang just wanted to see Qrow shake him down.

Spying Jaune sitting at the table with Pyrrha and Blake, she quickly called out to him, "Jaune, can you get Mercury and—"

"You take one more step and I'll throw the turkey at you!" Yang turned around in a flash and pointed threateningly at him, and when Yang wants to be threatening, even in just short shorts and a sports bra with bare feet, she can and will be threatening. Jaune looked like a deer in headlights, and slowly sat back down.

Spying Ruby's pleading look, Jaune raised his hands in surrender. "Ruby, she's thrown a turkey at me before, two of them actually, and I can't risk it again!"

Yang smirked. "I train my boys well."

Pyrrha coughed rather loudly at that.

"Sorry Pyr, couldn't resist," Yang apologized with a shrug and a smile.

"You're all horrible…" Ruby mumbled.

"If I must, then I will go and tell Mercury that your uncle is coming." Pyrrha stood from her seat with a polite smile, only to stop when Yang turned around yet again.

"Sorry Pyrrha, I can't let you do that. Now I know I can't hit you, but I can certainly take it out on your noodle boyfriend."

"Hey!" Jaune's outburst was ignored.

Pyrrha smiled in amusement before summoning one of the cooking trays to her with her semblance, letting it attach itself to the metal arm guard on her tricep. "I am not one to back down from a fight, Yang. And I will protect my blonde noodle from you."

"Heeeey!" Jaune was ignored yet again.

Yang and Pyrrha seemed to stare each other down, and Ruby looked between the two in worry. She never thought that Pyrrha would ever commence a stare down with her sister, but anyone who knows Yang knows that when there's a stare down with her, there's no going back.

"Uh…oh…"

"Should I get out of this room?" Cherry whispered.

"You still haven't unlocked your aura right?" Ruby asked back. At Cherry's shake of her head, Ruby said quickly, "Run. Run as fast as you can and don't look back."

~~•••~~

…The Living Room…

~~•••~~

"Tell me again why we're watching soap operas."

"Hey, shut up," Emerald warned before turning back to the screen, shoveling popcorn into her mouth. He still didn't know where she got it from. "You got me covered in dog drool. You deserve to be punished." She was silent for a moment before she made a rage filled noise and chucked popcorn at the holographic screen. "Don't go back to him! So what you love him? He keeps cheating on you!"

Mercury groaned as he cupped his face with his hands, "By Oum you are such a girl."

"You know, if I can't bribe you into silence, I'm just using duct tape," Emerald shot back while popping another piece of popcorn into her mouth. She glanced at him from the corner of her eye before offering the bowl to him. "Popcorn?"

Mercury glared at her before crossing his arms. "This your bribe attempt before you go for the tape?"

"Are you going to take some or not?"

"…just give me the bowl." Mercury snatched the glass bowl from Emerald's hands before beginning to stuff his face with the buttery kernels, and while it didn't change the fact that a soap opera was on and he was watching it, it did make it slightly more bearable. Kind of. Not really.

Emerald looked at him in disgust as he shoveled the popcorn into his mouth. "What's up with you and popcorn?"

Mercury narrowed his eyes at her. "You really want to get into this? 'Cause I got a whole can of worms that I can open up about your obsession with Cinder."

"And I can open up the can of worms consisting of you and your obsession over a fifteen year old."

Mercury glared at her, to which she glared right back. They stayed like that for a couple moments before Mercury burst out laughing, and Emerald shook her head while turning away to hide a smile of her own.

"Bitch."

"Idiot."

"Stockholm Syndrome," Mercury hissed.

"Daddy Issues." Emerald sneered.

There was a long pause. Mercury held up a hand with a small smile. "Partners."

Emerald rolled her eyes before clasping his hand with her own, a smile of her own dancing across her lips. "Partners."

And then, a loud slam came from behind them and in stumbled another guest. The door shut with an equally loud bang, and Mercury and Emerald shared a look before glancing back at the new guest. Mercury's stomach dropped down to the ground.

"Hey Qrow…"

There were few people that truly scared Mercury on Remnant, and sadly, Qrow was one of them. He not only posed a threat in combat, but was a threat to Cinder's operations. Mercury always had to be on his toes around Qrow, and Emerald needed to be as well.

Not to mention he was dating Qrow's niece, which immediately put him on Qrow's watch list. Fun.

Qrow swayed on his feet for a moment before his red eyes focused on the two figures on the couch. The plastic bags in his hands were placed on the floor before he walked around the couch and narrowed his eyes at Mercury.

"Mercury… how are you?"

"I'm doing good sir… this is my partner, Emerald." Mercury gestured to the mint haired girl next to him. "Ruby should be in the kitchen if you want to talk to her—"

"Woah woah, guys!" Cherry came running into the room then, looking slightly out of breathy and extremely panicked. "So Yang and Pyrrha were having this stare off and Ruby told me to run but I don't know what—"

"Don't worry about it Cherry, it'll be fine, happens between Yang and somebody every year." Qrow brushed off his niece's antics with a wave of his hand and a swig from his flask, to which Mercury grimaced at before schooling his expression.

Qrow and Mercury stared at each other for a long moment, and Emerald was looking anywhere but at them. The tension was easily detectable in the air, and Mercury didn't blame her for trying to stay SAY from Qrow's intimidating stare. Cherry just looked confused.

"Um… I'm just going to go sit by Emerald… yeah." Cherry crept past Qrow and lowered herself onto the couch beside Emerald, watching the exchange with confused yet wary eyes.

They sat for a while longer, with Qrow's expression unreadable and Mercury sitting with tense muscles. Eventually, Qrow sighed and leant back in one foot.

"Look kid, I'm not going to kill you for dating my niece," Qrow began, sighing as he looked off to the side. "I'll only kill you if you hurt my niece while dating her. Or while not dating her. You get what I mean."

"Yeah… I got it."

"If I were you, I'd be more worried about Tai, her dad." Qrow began to chuckle at the thought. "Man… he's gonna kill you."

Mercury found himself scowling. "That's good to know."

"Yeah, 'cause sass is gonna work in your favor here kid," Qrow quipped sarcastically. "Look, Ruby likes you, and that's good enough for me. I'm just trying to warn you about Tai. He's real protective." More yelling could be heard from the kitchen, and Qrow mumbled, "About ten seconds…"

"Ten seconds to what?" Emerald managed to speak.

"Until I unpack my 'groceries'."

Cherry frowned, and Mercury merely sat back in his seat while the redhead began to speak, "But what about Yang? She was ready to fight when I— OH MONTY OUM!"

A huge boom was heard from the kitchen, shaking the walls and some smoke to leak out from the doorway. The holographic image flickered before resuming in showing Emerald's soap opera, and Mercury stood up in alarm as coughing could be heard from the kitchen.

"…huh, eight instead of ten," Qrow muttered as he checked his watch. "They're getting faster each year now."

"Getting faster?" Emerald gaped.

"Each year?!" Cherry repeated in shock.

"Y-Yang? What did I say? You were getting too close to the oven!" He heard Ruby cry.

"We can fix it! It's just a little charred!" Yang chirped.

"Charred?! It looks like a mutant raisin!"

"Well that's a very creative description," Weiss coughed out.

"Pyrrha wouldn't back down, what can I say?" Yang exclaimed. "And somehow we managed to only hurt Jaune…"

"…I feel a little dizzy."

"Oh! I'm sorry!"

This house is full of crazies.

"Ruby?" Mercury broached.

"Wha— oh, we're okay!" Ruby called, and she soon appeared at the kitchen door a moment later, completely fine but covered in soot. "There was just a small complication with the oven… and the turkey… and the, uh…" Ruby glanced back into the kitchen. "And the Yang."

"Like there is every year." Qrow smiled fondly at the small silver eyed girl. "Hey Rubes."

"Uncle Qrow!" Ruby sped past Mercury and hugged Qrow tightly, and Qrow returned the embrace with warm affection. "Did you miss me, did you miss me!?"

"Certainly not you and Yang's collaborative cooking," Qrow teased before setting the girl down.

"But you missed *me* right?"

"Hm… nope." Qrow grinned as he ruffled Ruby's hair. He turned to the discarded plastic bags on the floor and scooped them all up. "Now, time to continue the tradition."

"Yay! Yaaaang, get the foldable tables and chairs!" Ruby hollered into the kitchen.

"Uncle Qrow's back already? Sweet! Come on guys, let's get the tables and chairs!" Yang exclaimed, appearing a moment later with soot and grime all over her. Blake, Weiss, Pyrrha, and Jaune followed her out a moment later.

Mercury looked at Ruby in confusion as Qrow began pulling out take out containers from the plastic bags, and Ruby trotted over to him, her bright silver eyes standing out compared to her dirty outfit and soot covered face. He laughed a little before taking his emblem cloth from his waistband and wiping her cheeks clean as he spoke, "Continue tradition?"

"Oh yeah!" Ruby said happily as she rocked back and forth on her heels. It made it difficult for him to wipe her face clean, but she didn't particularly care. "Every year Yang and I try to cook a big feast, then we fail – normally by exploding the kitchen just like this year – and then we eat take out."

Mercury cast an amused look at her before taking her hands and wiping at the grime on her palms. "And why do you keep trying to cook if you fail every year?"

"To be thankful that we didn't burn the house down," Ruby stated factually. "Mm, but I guess we could have skipped it this year… this year I have you here to be thankful for. Er, I mean, I-I have all of you here to-to be thankful for!" Ruby stuttered as a blush formed across her cheeks.

Mercury smirked before dipping down and kissing her cheek lightly, enjoying how it made her even more flustered. "I'm thankful to have you with me too, Gem."

Ruby bit her lip as she swayed on her feet, and Mercury brushed her knuckles with his thumb. A loud clatter and overly obvious cough drew them away from each other, and Mercury paled slightly when realizing it was Qrow who did it. Qrow merely kept unloading take out container after take out container, not even bothering to hide his smirk.

"Come on, let's help get tables," Ruby urged, and Mercury followed after.

Soon enough they had a few tables set up in the living room as well as just enough chairs to fit everyone. Cherry was sent up to find out what happened to Nora and Ren since they heard Nora exclaiming odd statements every once in a while from upstairs along with a multitude of doors opening and closing, and everyone else was finally settling down for a late Thanksgiving feast. Qrow was at the head while the opposite side was reserved for Taiyang, and Mercury sat beside Ruby and Emerald.

"Well, today was certainly interesting," Pyrrha broke the silence with a warm smile as she sat down beside Jaune, across from Ruby and Mercury.

"You can say that again…" Jaune groaned. "I got hit with a raisin turkey…"

"I told you I would hit you with a turkey, Vomit Boy," Yang replied with a smirk, brushing her golden locks from her face and winking. "I just did it in a more effective way."

"You exploded the kitchen," Blake said flatly. "I wouldn't call that effective."

"Oh come on Blake, what are you _turkin_ about?" Yang grinned as the entire table booed. "Eh? You get it?"

"Please stop," Blake whined as she rubbed her temple.

"Aw, what's wrong? You _feline_ alright?"

Ruby threw a fudge cookie at Yang's forehead, ignoring the look of shock on Yang's face and turning to Mercury. "It was worth losing a cookie."

"Wow Ruby," Yang mumbled before the spark quickly returned in her eyes. " _Thanks_ for _giving_ me a headache!"

"GAH WHEN DOES IT END!" Ruby screamed before hiding her face in Mercury's arm.

"Never Little Sis!" Yang replied happily before a loud shriek came from upstairs.

"I'm queen of the castle~" Nora appeared with a paper crown on her head (where did she even get that from) and she hopped atop the railing before singing again, "I'm queen of the castle~"

"NORA!"

"Hehehe, coming Ren!"

As Ren helped Nora hop down from the railing, Cherry appeared at the top of the steps, panting as she braced her hands on her knees. "Phew… I found 'em."

"Guh… I'm gonna need stronger alcohol for these kids…" Qrow muttered to himself.

Mercury observed the insanity around him with surprise. Never had he seen such an animated group stay… well, not murderous toward each other in such a close proximity for such a long time. It's like with all of them, taunts and teasing rolled off of them like water off a ducks back, and just being around each other was enough to keep them together, if that made any sense.

"Is it always this insane during Thanksgiving?" Mercury asked no one in particular.

"It certainly isn't like this in my household," Weiss said with an endearing note in her tone. "I… like it better here."

"It does keep you on your toes," Blake agreed with a small smile.

"Oh please, with seven sisters it's worse," Jaune chimed in with a wave of his hand. "Granted, the kitchen never exploded, but there's never a dull moment."

"Same here, obviously." Yang rolled her eyes with a smile. "Every year Ruby and I manage to completely destroy the turkey somehow, and we turn to the wonderful take out food gods."

"Uh, what do you mean 'we' manage to destroy the turkey? It's always you who destroys the turkey, I'm just a bystander," Ruby piped up from her position leaning against Mercury's arm.

"Oh please, remember when you tried to rush the cooking process of the turkey two years ago?" Yang arched a brow. "That might have even lit the kitchen up faster than this year!"

"Actually Yang, this year was the fastest the kitchen has ever been set on fire," Qrow cut in with a smirk. Ruby's bright eyed look was quickly turned to a glare as Qrow added, "But I gotta say Ruby, yours did the most damage."

Ruby growled as Yang wore a triumphant smile, and Ren, Nora and Cherry all joined them at the table. Yang looked around at all the filled chairs before glancing at Qrow.

"So should we just start eating now? Everything's set and it's getting pretty late."

Qrow took a glance at his watch again before shaking his head. "Nah, your father should be back in just a couple minutes. Might as well start when he gets here."

Mercury's content mood suddenly went sour. He completely forgot about Ruby's father… that's not good.

Ruby seemed to notice his sudden change in mood though, because he felt her fingers lace through his own, and when he looked at her, she smiled encouragingly at him. Instinctively he smiled back, since Ruby just seemed to have that affect on him. It was still weird having someone that stood by his side, but with Ruby it felt a little more natural, and Mercury's worry over Taiyang's reaction to him didn't seem so dominant in his mind.

What's going to happen will happen, and he was certain Taiyang couldn't throw anything that Marcus hasn't tried at him.

"Well this has been a pretty interesting first Thanksgiving so far," Mercury noted with an easy smile. All eyes darted to him.

" _This is your first Thanksgiving?!_ " A multitude of voices shrieked.

"Well we've got to change that!" Ruby squeaked. "Okay, its official now Mercury, you're coming over every Thanksgiving and it'll be better than the last one, and no buts!" She raised one finger. "Once you celebrate Thanksgiving once you can never go back!"

"Yeah!" Yang cheered.

Oh Oum, what did Mercury just get himself into?

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 _The end! Hope you liked this little Thanksgiving fic!_

 _Happy writing to all, and Lonessa out. :)_


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